Vacation

After meeting all kinds of great, interesting people all weekend and nearly sweating my body weight in water at the Arts and Crafts Show, I am off to Clearwater, Florida for a week of family fun in the (hopefully) sun! I will be back, in rare bloggin' form September 9th. Be sure to visit my Etsy shop that week, as I will be adding an entire new line of mix and match pendants and necklaces that range from super kitschy to super pretty, dozens of new gemstone necklaces, bracelets and earrings, and new paintings! Until then...

Kitschy Pendants and Earrings

My new pendants and earrings feature vintage/ retro photos printed on super durable and lightweight plastic. I have everything from squirrels (of course!) to guns to these fun jukeboxes:

Check back to see my flowery and paisley patterned pendants! Coming in the next week! I love paisley more than I love squirrels, believe it or not. xoxo

Have a Heart!

After spending a weekend trying some of those drink recipes I've been posting on Fridays, its time to see what that really does to you- mwah haha!! I have several funky new pendants from this rad French alcoholism propaganda ad I found from the 1800's. This one shows the before and after effects of alcohol on organs. I'm sure its all talk though. I mean, what did they know back then, right? I'm sure it's all viscious scare tactics, after all, when I drink, everyone looks prettier!

See this and more in my Etsy shop! Thanks for looking!! xoxo

Feeling Squirrelly?

As promised, I have kitschy new jewelry, some of which features my furry yard rat favorite:

I also have gas pumps, jukeboxes, and more! Stay tuned or visit my etsy shop for more! xoxo

Proud To Be Lowbrow

Apparently I have been putting all my jewelry in the wrong category in my Etsy shop. I thought "jewelry" covered it, but in browsing yesterday by category, I stumbled on jewelry similar to mine, (but hey, not all hand drawn with all the love I put in) under "kitsch". I guess I never knew really what this meant, because according to Webster's dictionary, it is:

kitsch
Pronunciation: \ˈkich\
Function: noun
Etymology: German
Date: 1925
1 : something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality 2 : a tacky or lowbrow quality or condition
— kitsch adjective

Gosh, I thought it was just fun, retro-ish, maybe a little pop art, fifties funky, that sort of thing. Lowbrow?! That's a little harsh. I consider my stuff to be high quality, since I consider how abusive I am to jewelry, and design everything to stand up to that. I spend alot of time hand drawing what others would just photocopy some graphic and glue on, and I definately never considered anything I make "tacky". I prefer "funky" or even "unique". Nonetheless, I tried putting some of my things in the "kitsch" category just to see what happens. My newest, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not earrings:

As it turns out, kitsch is a pretty broad term, that apparently means something different to everyone. Some really cool artists are considered kitsch. My favorite, Russian born South African artist Vladimir Tretchikoff, was considered "the king of kitsch" (quite a title, don't you think?), and also one of the best selling artists of all time. One of my favorites, Ballerina:

I'm not even in this dude's league, but I'll settle for being kitsch, even lowbrow, for now. If you're up for a little educational reading, you can read more about this fantastic artist here.

Or just waste some time browsing Kitsch on Etsy here. Have a kitschy day! xoxo